Principles, Markets and National Interest in Conservative Approaches to Social Policy

Abstract

This chapter examines certain widely held preconceptions about British ‘Conservative’ approaches to social welfare policy and questions how far those preconceptions are supported by historical evidence. The main focus of the chapter is on Conservative social policies since the 1930s to the present, but it also draws upon Conservative approaches to ‘social questions’ in Britain stretching back to the early nineteenth century. It explores its central argument on three levels. First, it suggests that the very identity of British ‘conservatism’ in relation to social policy had been much more fluid than is often supposed. Second, it suggests that there have been many more intellectual cross-currents between conservative, socialist and liberal theorists on social policy and ‘welfare state’ questions than is usually acknowledged. And, third, the chapter suggests that—despite the powerfully ideological character of much social policy debate both past and present—historical and structural continuities in Britain’s social welfare arrangements have often been at least as powerful in determining current policies as the theories and programs of particular parties that have happened to be in power.